The present invention relates to solid waste material sorting and recycling systems, and more particularly to an automobile shredder residue (ASR) sorting and recycling system.
Disposal of solid waste material creates an enormous problem. Disposal of scrap or junk vehicles are of particular concern since millions of passenger cars, trucks and busses continuously become old or non-usable. In order to recycle many of the components in such vehicles, shredders have been designed which mechanically tear the vehicles apart and separate them into two products, i.e. metallic scrap and automobile shredder residue (ASR). The metallic scrap is shipped to metal reprocessing centers, and the ASR material is shipped to a dump or land fill. However, due to the fact that automobiles are being designed to reduce the amount of metal components and increase the number of non-metal components, it has become desirable to develop systems for sorting and recycling as many of the reusable components as possible from the ASR material. As a result, several ASR sorting and recycling systems have been developed. There remains a need, however, for an improved system wherein the waste material can be processed into usable products.